Page 219 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2023. Glasbena društva v dolgem 19. stoletju: med ljubiteljsko in profesionalno kulturo ▪︎ Music societies in the long 19th century: Between amateur and professional culture. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 6
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the foundation of a free state is a free (music) association? continuity and change ...
na, is to offer some preliminary answers to the following question. In what
ways and to what extent was the organisational form and the concept of
‘association’ behind it, known in different languages of the Habsburg
monarchy under slightly varied terms (Verein, Gesellschaft; društvo, druž
ba¸ Associazione, Società), as well as in English (Association, Society), re-
defined by the so called liberal Associations’ Act in 18676 and how was that
accepted in the understanding of the addressees? Crucially, did it really,
along with the proverbial granting of the personal freedom by the post
1848 constitutions, advanced the freedoms of association and that of as-
sembly, as well?
To my surprise, after the initial gathering of the material and delving
into the concepts of the era, my first working hypotheses, formed upon the
association seemingly being an almost exclusively prevailing form of or-
ganising of music corpora,7 unproblematic and even desired, upon a more
in-depth analysis of several intriguing parts of archival material, had to be
revised. Each of the direct quotations above in a form of a motto was tak-
en from such an intriguing and for that reason inspiring archival material
or secondary literature, on or by the personalities or whole corpora, which
were the spiritus agens of music life, and in that sense the first addresses of
the 1867 Act. Let me briefly summarize them with the intent of formulating
in so doing the research questions they provoked and which I will tackle in
the main part of my contribution.
The first is an excerpt from the 1849 version of the Statut of Ljubljana
Philharmonische Gesellschaft (Filharmonična družba; Philharmonic Socie
ty)8 which in its Article 1, states for the first time – bearing in mind its for-
mer versions of the Society’s Statutes9 – that it had been founded as early
6 Das Gesetz über das Vereinsrecht vom 15. November 1867, R.G. Bl. Nr. 134.
7 Cf. Almost two whole pages of Vereine in the Sachregister of, Rudolf Flotzinger and
Gernot Gruber, eds., Musikgeschichte Österreichs. Band 3 (Von der Revolution 1848
zur Gegenwart), 2. überarbeitete und stark erweiterte Auflage (Wien, Köln, Weimar:
Böhlau Verlag, 1995), 403–5.
8 On the history of the Philharmonic Society, Primož Kuret, Ljubljanska filharmonič
na družba 1794–1919 (Ljubljana: Nova revija, 2005).
9 The oldest preserved version of the Society’s Statues that I could actually get access
to first hand and in full text is that from 1801, containing however a self-referential
remark to the one from 1794. On its cover page in brackets one can read: Nach den
Statuten vom Jahre 1794. umgearbeitet, und festgesetzt im Jahre 1801. A copy is kept
by the Music collection of the National and University Library (NUK) in Ljublja-
na in the ‘Archive of the Philharmonic Society’, in the fascicle ‘Ph G Statuten’. In the
same map, one can further find the versions of the Society’s Statutes from 1849, 1874
and 1901. For my present research, I have further used the Statutes from 1817 (with
217
na, is to offer some preliminary answers to the following question. In what
ways and to what extent was the organisational form and the concept of
‘association’ behind it, known in different languages of the Habsburg
monarchy under slightly varied terms (Verein, Gesellschaft; društvo, druž
ba¸ Associazione, Società), as well as in English (Association, Society), re-
defined by the so called liberal Associations’ Act in 18676 and how was that
accepted in the understanding of the addressees? Crucially, did it really,
along with the proverbial granting of the personal freedom by the post
1848 constitutions, advanced the freedoms of association and that of as-
sembly, as well?
To my surprise, after the initial gathering of the material and delving
into the concepts of the era, my first working hypotheses, formed upon the
association seemingly being an almost exclusively prevailing form of or-
ganising of music corpora,7 unproblematic and even desired, upon a more
in-depth analysis of several intriguing parts of archival material, had to be
revised. Each of the direct quotations above in a form of a motto was tak-
en from such an intriguing and for that reason inspiring archival material
or secondary literature, on or by the personalities or whole corpora, which
were the spiritus agens of music life, and in that sense the first addresses of
the 1867 Act. Let me briefly summarize them with the intent of formulating
in so doing the research questions they provoked and which I will tackle in
the main part of my contribution.
The first is an excerpt from the 1849 version of the Statut of Ljubljana
Philharmonische Gesellschaft (Filharmonična družba; Philharmonic Socie
ty)8 which in its Article 1, states for the first time – bearing in mind its for-
mer versions of the Society’s Statutes9 – that it had been founded as early
6 Das Gesetz über das Vereinsrecht vom 15. November 1867, R.G. Bl. Nr. 134.
7 Cf. Almost two whole pages of Vereine in the Sachregister of, Rudolf Flotzinger and
Gernot Gruber, eds., Musikgeschichte Österreichs. Band 3 (Von der Revolution 1848
zur Gegenwart), 2. überarbeitete und stark erweiterte Auflage (Wien, Köln, Weimar:
Böhlau Verlag, 1995), 403–5.
8 On the history of the Philharmonic Society, Primož Kuret, Ljubljanska filharmonič
na družba 1794–1919 (Ljubljana: Nova revija, 2005).
9 The oldest preserved version of the Society’s Statues that I could actually get access
to first hand and in full text is that from 1801, containing however a self-referential
remark to the one from 1794. On its cover page in brackets one can read: Nach den
Statuten vom Jahre 1794. umgearbeitet, und festgesetzt im Jahre 1801. A copy is kept
by the Music collection of the National and University Library (NUK) in Ljublja-
na in the ‘Archive of the Philharmonic Society’, in the fascicle ‘Ph G Statuten’. In the
same map, one can further find the versions of the Society’s Statutes from 1849, 1874
and 1901. For my present research, I have further used the Statutes from 1817 (with
217
